My client and I both hate the "steampunk" term, so we made up our own - Victorian Mechanical! the was chaos to do, but lots of fun with all the details.
I absolutely love this! The composition is stunning as well as the idea, and new terminology I'm completely jealous of the person that's wearing this sleeve!
i start from the bottom of all my tattoos and work to completion as i go up. after the end of the first session, i went over the main lines from the stencil very quickly with a watered down ink simply to hold the shape until next time. so there is no way id know know the answer to your question. sorry. glad you like it!